Advancing Air Navigation
Placing technology, safety at the heart of air traffic control
By Lindsay M. Hitch, Assistant Editor
August 2001
OTTAWA—Since its purchase the air navigation system from the Canadian government in November 1996, NAV CANADA has turned a lagging system into an industry leader. The Technical Systems Center, the source of NAV CANADA’s technological innovations, brings engineers and operators together in the development process.
Headquartered in a modern building in downtown
Ottawa, NAV CANADA gets little notice from the average passerby. It is
the people and purpose of the company inside that deserve attention.
"Safety is our only product; obviously,
it’s the core of our business," explains John Morris, director
of communications. "We’re a safety company. It’s what we
deliver to the owners and operators of aircraft. It’s our number
one priority."
Rethinking Boundaries
Creating a private company separate
from government has been attributed as the main cause for the Canadian
success.
NAV CANADA was established as a non-share
capital corporation, meaning that the company does not have shareholders
and operates on a break-even basis.
"The non-share capital structure
is the best all around for running a business that is in essence
a monopoly, because there aren’t profits that go to individuals,"
says John Crichton, president and CEO. "The money stays in
a loop and in the business. It allows the customers who are paying
all the bills to have a very significant presence on the board.
And because of all those factors, and the fact that our governance
is that we only charge what it costs to provide the service, it
eliminates the need to have an economic regulator, which is the
big point."
Another positive aspect to the separation
from government is one of boundaries, as Morris explains. "We
have an independent regulator. When the company was created, we
were split off from Transport Canada, and Transport Canada retained
the regulatory function. So rather than have the regulator and the
operator together in one organization, which does carry with it
an inherent conflict of interests, they are now separated in Canada.
That makes for more effective hands-off, arms-length regulations."
Since privatization in 1996, air traffic control operating irregularities in Canada have decreased, from 2.6 per 100,000 aircraft movements to 2.2 per 100,000 movements. NAV CANADA has reinstated annual refresher training for controllers, something that had been scaled back under government direction. And the company has created the ARGUS system, a confidential hotline for employees to report safety concerns.
SCIENTIFIC FORMULA
"The successful air navigation system
combines very skilled people with leading-edge technology," says
Crichton. "That’s sort of the secret to handle traffic demands
and the problems in the future. And we have taken a different route than
everybody else traditionally has done on technology. We do a lot of it
ourselves."
Morris says, "If there’s any one
thing that’s different from government days, it’s how fast we
can respond to customer needs, how fast we can get new technology developed
and deployed."
The NAV CANADA Technical Sys-tems Center
(TSC) in Ottawa is a facility dedicated to testing, improving, and creating
air traffic control components.
"The TSC reflects three levels of activity
that we do in engineering," says Sid Koslow, vice president of engineering.
The first level involves supporting the
existing systems. The TSC has one of each type of equipment in use throughout
NAV CANADA and staff assigned to support each of them.
The second level, says Koslow, is the testing
of all equipment, whether it was purchased "off-the-shelf" and
modified to fit NAV CANADA’s system or developed in-house.
"We exercise it fairly extensively
out there to make sure that we don’t add anything to a system in
the field that is not fully integrated and as bug-free as we can make
it in the test environment," says Koslow.
The third element is development, likely
the most unique aspect of NAV CANADA and its Technical Systems Center.
THE NEUROCENTER
The main development room at the TSC, reminiscent
of a scene from a James Bond flick with its low ceiling and dim lighting,
is full of computer screens, engineers, ATC operations staff, and contract
support staff. Koslow says that NAV CANADA tries to have all the key players
in one place working together, ensuring that what is created is mechanically
sound, user-friendly, and appropriate to needs.
"What we’ve done is, rather than
spend a lot of time looking way out into the future and trying to write
it down, we try to put together small teams that usually consist of operational
and engineering people from NAV CANADA, supplemented often by software
designers and coders from industry. And we try to, rather than write things
down, build something, build a small prototype. And then based on the
prototype and the reaction of our people to it, including the reactions
of people that are currently out in the regions doing ATC, we modify it."
The process has worked well for NAV CANADA
thus far, and RSiT is one such success. RSiT, or Radar Situation Display,
replaces radar-type displays with a desktop computer-type display with
a mouse and adaptable capabilities. RSiT took only 16 months from the
time it was first conceived to the time it was installed and fully operational
in its first location.
Crichton says there have been a number of
foreign visitors to NAV CANADA’s facilities in the past year interested
in the company structure and its technological advancements. He expects
that the company will begin reselling its technology to other air navigation
systems in the near future.
"That will be a win for everybody,
because we can sell it at a lower price and it’s already proven,
so there’s no risk. The customers are mutual customers, so they get
to lean on the investments that are already made and not have to pay again
and again and again.... That’s something we’re looking forward
to."
Canadian Firsts
A sampling of innovative technologies developed at NAV CANADA’s Technical Systems Center...
In service now:
• RSiT (Radar Situation Display)—provides
enhanced display features on a desktop computer screen with real-time
weather, zoom, display of only selected flights, and conflict detection
and resolution.
• CRDA (Converging Runway Display Aid)—allows
controllers to continue near-maximum use during IFR conditions of both
converging runways. Based on software from Mitre Corporation, CRDA has
increased runway capacity in Calgary up to 30 percent in IFR conditions.
• EXCDS (Extended Computer Display
System)—allows for touchscreen display of flight strips and the instant
transfer of strips from one controller to the next. The Toronto tower,
using EXCDS, is completely paperless.
In the next 18 months:
• CAATS (Canadian Auto-mated Air Traffic
System)—will automate flight data system-wide and will integrate
weather updates and nation-wide radar data.
• Pilot Information Kiosks—are
designed to serve the general aviation community with weather and NOTAMS,
and will allow pilots to file flight plans. NAV CANADA plans to install
80-100 kiosks in 80 locations around the nation, and the information will
be available on www.navcanada.ca as well.
